In the garment industry, the collection and recycling of used clothing has become commonplace. Donated clothing is compressed into large bales and sold to recyclers according to weight. The recyclers then sort and grade the clothing according to a variety of factors, such as color, material, and type of garment. Once sorted, the clothing can be sold to specific markets, both domestic and foreign.
Generally, the sorting and grading is done by hand in a time consuming and labour intensive manual operation. The bales of highly compressed clothing, each weighing approximately one thousand to two thousand pounds, and occupying a meter and half cube, are opened. A sorter then manually lifts each article of clothing from the bale, identifies it, and throws it into an appropriate bin located in proximity to the sorting station. In a typical sorting operation, a sorter can have from twenty to sixty separate bins in which to sort and grade clothing. In a typical day each sorter can manually sort approximately 3000 lbs., or three bales, of clothing. As will be appreciated, this method of sorting is extremely expensive. Numerous sorters are required, as well as a large floor space to accommodate the sorting stations. In addition, workers are prone to repetitive strain injuries from tossing heavy clothing across large distances. It will be further appreciated that the used clothing industry is becoming increasingly competitive, and operates on very small profit margins.
It is, therefore, desirable to automate the sorting operation. However, the nature of used clothing makes automation particularly difficult and ill-adapted to prior art sorting systems. The bales of clothing received by a recycler can include everything from blankets to silk scarves to shoes. Clothing, by its very nature, is soft and pliable, difficult to handle on a typical conveyor system and to separate adequately for identification.
In the prior art, it is well known to sort items such as rigid packages, particularly in the postal and inventory management fields. Typically, an identifier, such as a bar code or other readable indicia, is stamped on the item. The item is fed to a conveyor system, the identifier is read, and the item is conveyed to a predetermined location. Some form of pusher is then employed to route the package into a sorting bin, or onto a further conveyor. An example of such a system can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,642,117 to Burt. Such systems are not suitable for sorting loose clothing since it is difficult, if not impossible, to mark clothing, and it tends to bunch up thereby obscuring any applied indicia. In addition, such marking can damage clothing and would add an undesirable intermediary step to the sorting process.
The prior art is also replete with systems for sorting clothing hung on hangers, particularly in the dry cleaning industry. Such systems are used in large automated dry cleaning establishments. Examples of such systems can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,238,116 to Santicchi, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,419,439 to Branch. These systems also require a unique identifier to be applied to the article, typically a tag attached to the hanger or garment, and are therefore inapplicable to sorting loose clothing.
It is, therefore, desirable to provide a novel sorting apparatus for bulk articles, particularly soft non-uniform articles, such as clothing and other textiles.